If you want a sign that SEC basketball is on the rise, I’ve got not one but two #ItMightMeanTooMuch stories that are hoops-related.

What a time to be alive.

Fittingly, both involve Tennessee but for completely different reasons.

The first story involves a longtime grudge. And I’m not talking about a simple “oh, I grew up a Tennessee fan so I dislike Florida” type of grudge. After all, this is #ItMightMeanTooMuch. We take it to the next level here.

Tennessee fan Kyle Matlock said in an email that on his 8th birthday back in November 1996, he went to a Vols football game. Correction: He went to his first* Vols football game, which was at Memphis. There, Matlock watched Peyton Manning and No. 6 Tennessee somehow lose to Memphis and end their national championship hopes.

Matlock said that “as a crying 8-year old walking out of the stadium dressed head to toe in orange, some middle-aged drunk woman decided to grab me by my jacket, shake me back and forth, and scream ‘F$#% TENNESSEE’ in my face.”

Fast forward 12 years to 2008 and Matlock, a Memphis native still living in Memphis, was getting amped up to watch No. 2 Tennessee basketball against the No. 1 Tigers. According to Matlock, that week of work leading up to the game was brutal for him. He was allowed to wear hats at his job, so he decided to rep the Vols on his dome all week. Apparently that didn’t end well. Matlock said that he was “spit on, threatened (by co-workers and customers), and harassed constantly at my workplace.”

Fast forward a week after Tennessee knocked off Memphis and Matlock said that he was fired without any reasoning by his boss, a Memphis fan.

“To this day, there is no team I would rather watch TN beat than the Memphis Tigers,” Matlock wrote in an email. “Man do I hate the University of Memphis.”

Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

Now there are obviously two sides of every story and without knowing the other half, I don’t want to jump to any conclusions.

But whether that was the entire reason Matlock was fired or not, there is a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to Group of 5 schools. UCF is the most recent proof. The constant need to prove themselves has created this strain between Group of 5 and Power 5 schools.

Look no further than all the pettiness from first-year Memphis coach Penny Hardaway toward Tennessee this season. That only spiked when Memphis lost to the surging Vols at home a couple months ago.

Something tells me Matlock enjoyed that one a little more than the rest during that 19-game winning streak.

A Kentucky pastor who needs a hug

Speaking of Tennessee hoops and that 19-game winning streak, it came to an end last Saturday night at Kentucky.

It was a beatdown. Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams didn’t hold back criticism of their performance at Rupp Arena, where Kentucky fans were treated to the team’s most impressive win of the year.

The following morning, Kentucky pastor Tyler Johnson experienced an interesting reaction at his Sunday service. Johnson is a Tennessee graduate, which isn’t lost on the people who attend his church in Williamsburg, Ky. They did the gracious thing and gave him consolation hugs after the tough loss for his Vols.

Like, a lot of consolation hugs.

If that’s not the ultimate “bless your heart,” I don’t know what is.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s awfully kind of Kentucky fans to do that, and I’m sure many of those same people hugged Johnson following the announcement of his expected first child.

But what if the situation had been reversed and Tennessee was coming off the monumental win? Maybe Johnson even slipped a little line into his sermon about the Vols victory against Kentucky.

“Admiral Schofield was like Moses leading the way to the Promised Land.”

(Actually, we know from a past #ItMightMeanTooMuch story that it’s probably not the best idea for the Tennessee fan pastor to make such comparisons while in enemy territory.)

Tennessee reference or not, I have a hard time believing that Johnson would have received the love he did on Sunday morning if the Vols had won. It’s easy to act graciously in moments of triumph. Shoot, I bet attendance numbers across churches in Kentucky were through the roof that morning.

“Lord, thank you so much for allowing our boys to shake off that absurd goaltending call against LSU so that they could dominate Tennessee.”

And if those were prayers answered from Kentucky fans, who am I to judge? Not to get too religious here, but I definitely sent a few dozen prayers up during the Chicago Cubs’ 2016 playoffs run. Fortunately for me, they worked.

Fortunately for Kentucky fans, their prayers were answered in the form of a convincing win over Johnson’s Vols.

The good news for him is that the NCAA Tournament selection committee knows a thing or two about forgiveness, as well. The Vols can still put themselves in position for a No. 1 seed by beating Kentucky to win the regular season conference title, and then by doing so again in the SEC Tournament.

If that happens, Johnson will have a whole bunch of hugs to give out.